The Turkish Ministry of Education’s decision to allocate only 10 positions for Kurdish language teachers out of 20,000 new teaching positions has sparked significant backlash, the Stockholm Center for Freedom reported.
Last year the ministry appointed 50 Kurdish teachers under a program titled “Living Languages and Dialects.” This year, the number was reduced to 10, comprising six teachers of the Kurmanci dialect and four for Zazaki.
The reduction has drawn sharp criticism from politicians and civil society organizations, who argue that it undermines the right of Kurds to education in their mother tongue.
Gülderen Varlı, a member of parliament from the Democracy and Equality Party (DEM Party) in Van, said on social media that Kurdish is only remembered during election periods.
“They are trying to prevent education in the mother tongue,” she said, adding that Kurds pay taxes and have the right to receive education in their native language.
Kurdish was introduced as an elective course in September 2012 as part of Turkey’s European Union accession process.
However, critics argue that although the government claims to allocate teaching positions based on need, systemic barriers prevent students from choosing Kurdish as an elective. Many schools do not provide forms for selecting courses, citing a lack of teachers and redirecting students to other subjects….
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After the truth-shower 